Yuruse
by Former angel Castiel
Summary: A man who wants nothing but to help his brother be strong, and a man who wants nothing but to be free. Their views will clash and their teachings will suffer, but in the end, they both find what they are looking for.  Non yaoi Rated- T for now


**So, this is a story I've been thinking about for a while now, so I figured I would give it a try. **

**Hello, this is _Former angel Castiel_, and this is my new story. There will be many ups and downs, lots of changes with minor changes, and a story I am hoping many will love. Please leave a comment after reading. **

**See you at the end of the story. :D**

**_Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto or any of the characters_  
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><p><strong><span>Chapter 1: You and I are flesh and blood<span>**

Konoha seemed so peaceful the day I was supposed to fulfill my orders given to me from the Hokage; the leaves fell around the village slowly, the breeze flowing through the village without much effort, the sound of children playing in the streets, of vendors calling out to potential customers, mugs clinking together from the ninja and ANBU celebrating their return and saluting their fallen. Peace was such a hard thing to come by, it seemed only fitting my last day here would be surrounded by the very thing I hoped to protect.

My black midnight hair whipped over my shoulders as a strong gust blew through; gently I reached around and pulled it back, only restraining it with my left hand against the base of my neck. I let my onyx eyes search around aimlessly before setting my gaze on the academy in the distance.

He will be ashamed of me when he found out. He will want to kill me, but I'm betting everything on that. He alone will restore the name of the Uchiha clan, even with a little nudge from me. I envisioned my life always involving my younger brother, even now I plan his consistency in my life; at least the remainder of it. So much is planed out for Sasuke, but he will never learn of it because I plan to die with these secrets.

Nearly time for the mission to begin. I would only have a small amount of time before someone notices something is wrong. Slowly I rise and stand on the tree limb I was sitting on, taking my hair back and tying it into a low pony-tail. My haiate was hanging off my belt, capturing the setting sun and sending small rays of light into my eyes. This would be the last time I could wear it without so-much as a scratch on it. It will never shine like this again.

Slowly I raised it to eye level, recalling all the classes, all the training and hardships I had to endure to get this far. This is my time to bring peace to Konoha, weather the towns' people rejoiced or simply mourned. As I tied my haiate around my forehead, I pushed all my thoughts behind a wall I prepared long ago. My mask was the last instrument needed for this task, because with this, I would forever hide my true intentions.

I will never again be Itachi Uchiha.

I jumped as quickly as I could towards the compound, but I didn't stop the small memories that kept popping around my wall like a leak in a pipe. The park I took Sasuke to just a week ago, the children running around aimlessly playing ninja, the smell of dango that filled my senses. Although I'm not the biggest fan of dango, I do like their green tea. I listened to parents soothing a child that had fallen and scraped his knee, or telling their daughters to never give up a dream of being a ninja just because someone else said they couldn't.

I remembered my childhood all too well; filled with the misery of feeling abandoned, having to please my father by being absolutely obedient, being to skilled for my father's liking, then being used as a puppet to keep an eye on the Hokage after making ANBU, then Captain. I would do anything to keep Sasuke from following in my footsteps.

ANYTHING.

As I came closer and closer to the compound, I started to see a faint red glow. My heart speed up, surly they wouldn't start the coup by burning down the Uchiha district! My fears became more and more justified when smoke and ash started to darken the sky around my location, making the glow a glorious crimson.

_'Oh Kami! What have they done?'_

I raced at my full speed, landing in front of the burning building; the main house, my house. The building was burning in a brilliant blaze with such a heat even too hot for hell. As I stood in shock, a single silhouette started moving towards me.

Their long hair whipped around; above their shoulders, around their shadowed face, even up over their head a few times. They walked with such lethalness to their body, as if they were totally confident in their abilities.

Breathing in the smoke so close was starting to get to me, I started coughing violently and had to jump a few yards back. But I never let the figure out of my sight, and neither did they apparently. As soon as I looked at the house behind them, they suddenly disappeared. I sensed something coming down on me to my right and quickly blocked, narrowly making them miss my collar bone.

Without the shadow casted I could clearly see it was a woman. She wore a simple ninja outfit consisting of gray ninja pants and a gray pull over. Her face was covered by a mask pulled up over the bridge of her nose and a cloth headband pulled just over her eyes, enough so I couldn't see her. She jumped back and flung three Kunai at me, and jumped to my left throwing seven Shuriken towards me, aiming for my rib cage.

They were all simple to avoid, but I knew she wasn't trying very hard. She had two Fumma Shuriken hanging on her hips, a katana hitched across her back, and a rather large bag that she had pulled the Kunai and Shuriken from.

As I flung three Shuriken at her feet, I also released two Kunai with paper bombs wrapped around the handles towards her head. She kicked her heels down and two Tanto flipped out from her sandals, blocking the Shuriken and allowing her to completely dodge the Kunai. I pulled my ANBU sword from its sheath and moved in to swing low at her legs. She must have figured, because she flipped onto her hands and kicked towards my head.

I managed to move away from the left one, but the right one cut the inner fabric of my glove and leaving a rather large scratch going up my arm. Immediately after, my arm started to pulsate and burn; those damn things where poisoned!

_'Wait, why am I so surprised those things where poisoned? Now that I think about it…I've been feeling light headed since I inhaled the smoke…DAMN!'_

The house! There was poison in the smoke! How the hell did she manage that?

My legs started to shake and my vision blurred, my right arm started to flare up, the muscle contracting and pulsating desperately. My knees buckled and I collapsed under my own weight, landing on my right arm, but feeling nothing. From the cracking noise, I assume I broke it, and I'm kind of glad I can't feel it right now.

I was an easy target, crippled by the poison and my broken, possibly permanently fractured, arm. I was lying at her feet, but she simply kicked her heels one at a time to retract the blades, and walked over to me. Her stench reached me first; a foul stench of drying blood and strong poisons, mixed with burnt flesh. Then an even sicker smell reached me; she smelt of roses under all that repulsive mixture of death.

She approached rather quickly, kneeling down and moving me on my back resting my head on her lap. I could feel her eyes on me, searching me up and down, before she suddenly stood and let my head hit the floor hard. I could see red and my head felt like it was submerged in water, my ears ringed loudly. As sudden as it happened, I took a gasp of air and everything was somewhat clear.

I couldn't believe it! I was an ANBU for Kami's sake, how can a mere woman reduce me to this in a matter of seconds? I tried moving my hand towards a Kunai that was lying to my left only inches away, but as I got closer she turned and threw a Kunai into my shoulder blade. Effectively dislocating my arm from my shoulder, and simply strolled up and let her foot fall just below the Kunai. Adding pressure to her foot, she started laughing at my expression.

She lifted her leg and stomped down, a horrible sound suddenly surrounded us. Before I could even think about where it came from, it happened again as she kept lifting her foot and slamming it down. I felt bile coming up and turned my head just as it finally escaped me. I suddenly wished to go back just a couple of minutes ago, when I would have passed out, but I will not think back to what would have been.

"Awe. Did someone have an accident? How would you like momma to help you?"

I barely heard it, because of her mask, her voice was muffled; why would she mock me in such a pitiful state? Most ninja would have finished their opponent off the first chance they got. But then you get the ninja that get a thrill from watching their prey writhe in pain, slowly watching the light in their eyes disappearing. Monsters in human skin slowly eating away at the skin and soul of a person.

She started to kneel down again, but she was also pulling her katana out of it sheath, and laid it on top of me, across the length of my body. She knew I couldn't grab at it even if I was really determined, which by now, I really wasn't. I wanted it over; the pain was just too much. I was just so happy Sasuke wasn't here to see me. I closed my eyes, waiting for her to deliver the final blow.

Something was placed around my eyes, sending my already black vision darker, but also forcing me to smell the horrible stench of hers'. I felt the blade being lifted off, and let a bloody smile spread across my lips.

"No. You will not die with a smile on your face." The voice I heard made my heart skip a beat. Did I really hear that right? That tone…"You will suffer the most, Itachi. I did all this for Sasuke, not you!"

She ripped the cloth placed on my eyes off, revealing a horror worse than the deepest pits of hell. Her black hair was a stark contrast to her fair skin. The smile I grew up with was now pulled into a hate filled scowl, and her usually clear eyes where filled with hate and tears.

"Moth-er…" My voice came out choked, I couldn't believe it. What did she do?

"I knew something was up…we all knew, especially your father. He always came to me saying we made a mistake by relying on you so much. But what could we do? It wasn't our fault you were such a genius, we just used what we could. You were the first born, the heir and the strongest of the Uchiha. I always told your father that you would listen; you would do anything to keep Sasuke from how you grew up."

She pulled a glass veil out of her pants pocket, holding it up to the light of the fire. A thick yellow fluid sloshed in the veil as a slow smile spread on her lips. She popped it open and, using her mask as a rag, she started wiping her katana with the liquid.

"I should have known though. You always thought you were better, but that's only because we treated you that way. In a way, that was our fault. But that's why I had to deal with the burden. When I overheard your conversation with Shisui, I knew what was coming. Not even a week later, Shisui was dead, and your plan was just beginning. I didn't know when, but I paid attention to your behavior and deadlines for missions. You screwed up today, Itachi."

_'I screwed up?'_

"How?"

Her smile was heart-retching; it was just so…cold. It wasn't my mother at all.

"Now that's the cold-emotionless, calculating child I know. For a moment, I was wondering where you went."

I stared coughing hard; I could feel the blood starting to pool in the back of my throat. But I HAD to know, where did I go wrong? I woke up at my normal time, saw Sasuke off to school, spoke with my father a bit more trying to ebb him from the coup, and even sat with mother and had a little bit of breakfast. What gave me away?

"Mother, please! Tell me before I pass away… I need to know where I went wrong."

"Well, there's one thing I won't miss. You won't ever get to call me mother again, you filthy piece of trash."

She examined her blade, like her words didn't hurt enough, and started to raise it. It glistened in the still burning main house, the flames giving it a new life. Her onyx eyes glistened with the same fire, and her smile was twisted into an insane grin; too wide for a delicate woman like my mother, too…demonic. She lifted the katana till the blade was pointed at my throat, with her arms stretched out like she planned to put her whole weight into cutting off my head.

"Sasuke, forgive me. I won't be able to make you stronger after all."

"NO!" My mother erupted, the katana shaking in her grasp," You will NOT TALK ABOUT SASUKE! I WILL MAKE HIM STRONG! I WILL MAKE HIM FOLLOW HIS FOOTSTEPS AS AN AVENGER! I WILL BE HIS REASON TO LIVE FROM NOW ON!"

The swords' edge pierced my throat, but something stopped it from going all the way in; or rather SOMEONE.

I couldn't tell who it was, but from the build, it was obviously a man. He had the same outfit she had on, including the mask and cloth headband. He had my moth…Mikotos' wrist tightly grasped in his right hand and holding on to the hilt of the katana with his left. She stared at him with a surprised look, before she slowly started to calm down, and let go of the hilt entirely. He nodded his approval to her, and stood with the katanas point still pointed at my throat. I could feel a burning sensation where it had just broken the skin, and started struggling to breath.

"Hurry up! Someone had to have noticed the smoke by now! Kill him!" Mikotos' voice was harsh as she spoke of me like some dying pet that needed to be put down quickly before the children got home.

There was a muffled reply that I couldn't quite hear because I started to violently cough. As I coughed, I could feel the blood that occupied my throat fall from the sky and land on my face. It trickled down the sides of my face into my ears, and even into my hair. This was it. I was going to die from drowning, suffocation, or getting my head chopped off.

I was far from hearing anything anymore, so when Mikotos face suddenly went from enjoyed anticipation to shocked horror, I had sudden dread.

Two bodies flung themselves at Mikoto and the stranger, forcing them back. I wanted to yell at them, tell them to leave, that Mikoto and her partner had many poisoned weapons, but I couldn't find my voice; and when I did open my mouth, more coughing emitted along with blood.

The new comers were dressed in black cloaks that hid their movements towards their weapons, and white mask covered their faces perfectly. Their fighting styles were contrasting; one only used his sword, while the other used only jutsu. An array of jutsu covered the battle field, from the one ANBU and Mikoto; while a battle of blades picked up on the other side.

I watched helplessly on the floor; there was just nothing I could do…

_'No. I can still use THAT!'_

I closed my eyes, focusing my chakra into my Kekkei Genkai, feeling it give way and change into the Sharingan. The shift always made me want to rub my eyes out of pure annoyance, for some reason it always felt like they were twitching uncontrollably.

I quickly put that thought aside and started focusing on the next change: the Mangekyō Sharingan. This was going to be incredibly straining, and I had only one shot at this, so I'd need it to count! I could feel the change more so than normal, and it felt like my head was splitting open from the amount of chakra being used up to make the change. When my focusing paid off I felt a sudden pop; like a blood vessel popping in my eyes, but I didn't have the time to ponder.

_'One shot! Just one shot! Kami, give me my opportunity please!'_

A loud clang sounded right next to my left ear and I shot my eyes open. Standing over me was the masked man Mikoto teamed up with. He was staring down to my left, breathing rather but no battle wounds what-so-ever. His mask covering his eyes was completely obliterated though; Kami was on my side. I could feel a liquid being soaked up by my clothes and smell iron where he was looking; he killed the ANBU.

I did not have time to mourn for my fallen brother in arms, for the masked stranger finally looked down at me. His dark onyx eyes were filled with just as much hate as my mothers, but something more lingered in them. What it was I couldn't even comprehend; I needed this time to do the one thing my broken body could do. Locking eyes with this man, I cast a single jutsu; Tsukuyomi.

The world plummeted into a nightmare; the sky was blood red and an inverted-gray scale to me and the masked enemy. I had only used this jutsu twice since I acquired the Mangekyō Sharingan, and it always placed a great strain onto my left eye. I only had a few seconds to make the time here last a day, and that was only if the other ANBU could hold Mikoto back.

I looked to my left to find the man held to a cross by metal cuffs wrapped on both wrist, and a pair holding his ankles together. He started to struggle, shifting from side to side, desperately trying to free something. From his expression, he was extremely frightened by this than by anything the real world threw at him earlier.

I couldn't feel anything, lying here on this black floor; not even when I forced myself to stand. In this world, everything that was broken, beaten, poisoned, and even dead was nothing more than a bad dream…for now.

My mind was numbed with the humming of a headache as my body mechanically stood and started its way towards the captured man. There were so many ways to break this man's psyche, but I did not even know who this man was, so I went with the simplest one; torture.

As I approached the man, he stopped struggling and simply locked eyes with me again. The same hatred and undertone of emotion I could not put my finger on, but he was also scared. His pupils darted from center to his left and right back to center, his hands quivered in the cuffs and his chest rose and fell faster than what was normal.

"In Tsukuyomi, time and space, even physical mass, I control them all. The next twenty-four hours will be nothing but torture. Telling yourself it's an illusion will do you little good. Pain is pain; call it what you will. How long will it be, I wonder, before your spirit is broken."

The man squirmed at my explanation, but did little more to fight back. What I said was true; this world was a world I controlled with my mind. It takes an impressive amount of chakra to even maintain it, so every detail is planed ahead to insure I've used just the right amount. Now, that being said; this is the DEFAULT. With my mind so far away because of the pain and the only thing on my mind being that I needed to get this man to look straight into my eyes, I had no time to actually think about a more sinister place. I hadn't thought of weapons, if any; or what type of torture I wanted him to crack under.

So as far as the default would go, I had a simple open field, a wooden cross with cuffs build into it for holding my victim and my katana. Although not what I would have chosen, it would serve its purpose none the less.

As I finally approached the man, I gripped the swords hilt tight; praying to Kami this would turn out right.

I should have held the thought to myself; seeing how the day was going so far, I should have just prayed for world peace. At least then I wouldn't have been caught so surprised, like just right now; I had an unwanted visitor in my mind.

I don't know how I didn't notice her, but Mikoto was there. She stepped out from behind the wooden stake holding her partner just as I raised the sword, making me retreat slightly. Her head was down, her face completely hidden behind her hair, but it was her. How the hell was she in my head? I didn't read anything in the secret scrolls that said someone else could enter Tsukuyomi!

"Itachi, again you underestimate me. You should know NEVER to leave a blind spot or underestimate your opponents." The malice in her voice made me physically twitch because it was true. After ALL that happened, I was still writing her off as unimportant; but not anymore.

The man could wait, Makoto needed to be taken down a peg, and I was willing to do it. She has humiliated me today more times than I could count and claims it was solely for Sasuke. Based solely on what she said it was really all for her. She may have said it was Sasuke, she could claim over and over it was for him, even stand in front of Kami himself and swear upon it; but at the end of the day, she was simply fulfilling her own wants in his name.

I propelled myself at her; the sword in my hand stretched out and aimed for a quick blow to through her skull. Of course I knew it wouldn't kill her because this was only a genjutsu, but it would still cause her pain, and hopefully slow her down in the real world.

She dodged to my right, grabbing my arm in her hands and used her momentum to twist the sword from my grasp. I used her new position to swing my right foot into her stomach, sending her flying backwards; she simply twisted in the air and landed skillfully on her feet. Her head was still down but I could tell from her stance she was perfectly comfortable, and her breathing was also under control. She suddenly crouched and ran towards me with a speed that scared even me.

She was very nimble on her feet, I would give her that and I had always wondered who I got most of my skills from. My father was very…stiff. He only knew jutsu and a very basic type of taijutsu that resulted in his faulty ability to dodge most attacks. I guess the best way to put it is, he simply figured if you can't over-power it, then you deserved to die.

Watching Mikoto move was like watching one of my clones coming at me during practice. Her movements were precise and planned out, her feet never really making a sound making her seem like she was gliding through the air. Right, left, right, center; punch, kick, Tanto to the ribs, and punch to the face. They were easy enough to dodge, but they were hard to keep track of. If I slipped up once, she wouldn't hesitate to slash me to pieces.

She threw another punch towards my head with a paper bomb wrapped around her fist; what the hell was up with this women? She wanted me dead so much, she was willing to blow her arm off and possibly kill herself? I ducked under her arm as it swung my way, and caught the briefest of smiles from her, before she disappeared and sent me flying twenty feet away.

Even in a genjutsu I hurt like hell when I slid that far, I was pretty sure I had mental concrete burn. She was above me before I could even think to get up, her face only inches away from mine and her hair making a curtain around us.

Again I could tell the difference between us; I was breathing deeply and ragged while she was breathing like she was back home cleaning the dishes. She had more practice at this than I did, and I never really asked for her help during my trainings. In fact I never really even asked about her ninja experience. I knew she was ranked a Jōnin, but based on her skills she had to be higher than that! She could have been a captain of her own special ANBU team.

"Itachi, I hope you had enough fighting for today, because this is going to end one way or another. I'm tired of you thinking you're hot shit; it's time for mommy to send you to the coroner."

_'What? She really tried to make a pun?'_

She lifted her head slightly and stared me straight in the eyes. Shocked would not begin to describe how I was feeling; starting straight at me was another pair of Mangekyō. It was very different from my own and yet still so familiar. It resembled a pin wheel, just like my own and even rotated in the same direction; but it had more structure to it.

Her eyes where more like a storm, six long, thick, curved lines where pulling from the iris with six smaller thinner curved lines in between. A single tomoe decorated the tips of the thinner lines, in various sizes; either smaller then a regular tomoe or just about the same size. I really couldn't tell, but for some reason, I think her eyes were a darker shade of red as well.

My senses were coming back, I could feel the pain in my head again and my eyes blurring; and with each renewed pain, I heard a loud cracking noise. Slowly my black and red world started shattering around me, falling like glass from a window, but never hitting the floor; only dissipating in the air. Mikoto smiled as she too dissipated into thin air, the man was starting to fade from the cross. His breathing was erratic and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. The sword slipped from his hand, clattering to the floor as he started to fall back. Before he could hit the floor, Mikoto had caught him and threw him over her shoulder.

Locking eyes with me again, she simply smiled and nodded down at me, Mangekyō still blazing, "See you soon, ITACHI."

With that, she jumped forward with the man, and started narrowly avoiding traps and other ninja coming to the scene. Taking out a few of the ninja or getting her own traps in; she was going to make it out, damn it.

I started coughing uncontrollably again, blood spilling around me, just as an ANBU in a dog mask with white hair approached me. I knew this man, the copy ninja, the ninja with a thousand jutsus, and so on.

Kakashi Hatake.

I couldn't tell what he was saying nor could I hear, I was so tired and drained of my chakra by now, I just wanted to close my eyes. I felt myself smile slowly, the drying blood around my lips cracking away, giving way to fresh blood.

I am more than ready to die, that much I am sure of. There is nothing left for me to do here; the clan was destroyed as promised, Mikoto will be hunted down along with the man and Sasuke…

_'Sasuke…SASUKE! What's going to happen to him? I can't die!'_

I started to try to struggle, but it was pathetic and easily restrained; but they still needed to put me under.

_'No! I need to tell Sasuke! This was my entire fault! I did this…I…Sasuke…'_

Everything went black.

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><p><strong>So I know this was kind of...weird, is the word I would use. But leave a comment on what you think.<strong>

**I will be switching the P.O.V. for a chapter or two, so Itachi can heal and wake up properly instead of spontaniously getting better. **

**Anyways, until next time. :D**


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